KARACHI, Jan 23: “The notion that urban human civilisation began in Mesopotamia and then those people went and settled in Egypt, China and lastly along the Indus River banks is wrong. The Indus Valley Civilisation developed during the same period when the other ancient civilisations were thriving and people from the region traded and came into contact with them,” said noted archaeologist Dr Jonathan Mark Kenoyer on Wednesday.

He was delivering a lecture, organised by the Sindh departments of culture and archaeology in collaboration with the Centre for Archaeological and Environmental Research, at the National Museum. He is a faculty member of the anthropology department at the University of Wisconsin, US, and author of several books.

In his lecture, peppered with examples in accent-free Urdu and local vernaculars, Dr Kenoyer talked about the seals used by the people of the Indus Valley Civilisation, and the technology used to make them. He also talked about evidence of the fabrics made and worn during that time.

He said the seals dating from various eras of centres of the Indus Valley Civilisation, such as Harappa, had been found in India, Mesopotamia and Oman. A little evidence had also been found even in Troy.

He said the theory of ‘diffusion’ — that people of the Indus Valley Civilisation came from urban settlements in ancient Rome, Mesopotamia or Egypt — was wrong. He said he believed that people always lived here, supporting his point by stating that evidence had been found of people from the Paleolithic age (old stone age before 10,000 BC) in the Ravi basin while evidence of Neolithic settlements (new stone age from 10,000 to 7,000 BC) had been found in Mehergarh.

In fact, he said, people of the Indus Valley Civilisation travelled as far as Badakhshan. He showed a few seals of various eras of Harappa and areas in India, Central Asia and Oman, with similar symbols and inscriptions. Giving an example, he said a bead from the Indus civilisation had made its way even to the ancient city of Troy.

Among the seals he showed was one from Mehergarh and dated back to 3,000 BC while another was from Banawli, in Haryana state, India. Both had the inscription of a buffalo tossing a human into the air and proving that people also had shared religious or mythical beliefs.

A lot of the seals found at the archaeological sites of the Indus civilisation had unicorns made on them. Dr Kenoyer said those seals were used by the people here from 2,600 to 1,900 BC and then stopped using them after this time. However, their use continued in Mesopotamia.

Talking about the technology used in making the seals, which according to Dr Kenoyer were the most dramatic forms of writing, he said evidence suggested that writing originated in the Ravi phase of Indus civilisation (3,700 to 2,600 BC) and developed further in the Kot Diji phase (2,600 to 1,900 BC). Comparing magnified images of seals from various regions, the archaeologist said that tool marks on the seals suggested that the people of the Indus civilisation not only traded with other civilisations but also had a centralised system of making their seals. “It can’t be plausible that all the settlement decided to have the same kinds of seals,” said Dr Kenoyer. “There was probably one master craftsman who had pupils. They travelled to other areas and took their technology with them.”

For this, he said, the people must have required material which they brought in from Badakhshan and the Makran coast when they traded with other civilisations. Seals found at Bat, Oman, had the same craftsmanship as in Harappan seals but different motifs.

Most of the seals dating to the earlier time of the civilisation have geometric patterns. They were followed by animal drawings and then writing combined with animal drawings. Seals with writing which became linear with time followed, before the re-emergence of geometric designs on them.

All seals in the northern region of the Indus civilisation, said Dr Kenoyer, had bosses at their backs to put a string through. The design of the boss was changed with time since circular ones were not durable. They were made bigger and then were hollowed out like a ‘taweez’, he said.

Dr Kenoyer said that Harappan cities developed from one settlement which kept expanding. He said the administrations of the settlements used city walls as a means to keep a check on the economy and controlled tax collection.

“There used to be ‘sarayay’ (inns) for visitors who came at night on the entrance of every ‘para’ which was surrounded by a wall. Gradually, the ‘paras’ expanded enveloping the area around the ‘sarayay’,” he said. “For example if anyone in Karachi wanted to evade tax he would go and set up shop in Sohrab Goth. But eventually the population of Karachi expanded and Sohrab Goth became a part of the city itself.”

Talking about the textiles made and used by the people of the Indus Valley Civilisation, Dr Kenoyer said that evidence found suggested that the people wore fine cotton (muslin) and silk. In fact, he said, the so-called Silk Route and the notion that silk was brought from China to the rest of the world might have to be revised as well because the Chinese state controlled silk trade.

He said that silk threads had been found on various pieces of jewellery found in the region and other evidence suggested that the Romans traded gold for silk with people living in Harappa.

Discussing the etymology of silk moths and linguistic clues in Vedas, Dr Kenoyer said he believed that cotton silk was developed by the people of the Indus civilisation because silk could not be worn in hot weather. “They might have been making silk on their own as well and this might be the reason the Romans tried to conquer Taxila three times.”

Architect Arif Hasan, who presided over the event, said he had truly realised the importance of technology after listening to Dr Kenoyer’s theories and had found it deeply fascinating. “There are such strong links between our culture and those of others and we should not only cherish and promote it but also learn to live with it,” he said.